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Midsomer

Situated in the rural landscape south east of Oxford, England (between Wallingford and Thame), the fictional county of Midsomer (the setting of the TV programme ‘Midsomer Murders’) extends through open farmland of large fields intersected by two rivers, to the rolling hills of the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the south east.

‘Midsomer Murders’ is a detective drama set in modern-day England. The stories revolve around the efforts of Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, and later his successor, cousin John Barnaby, to solve numerous murders that take place in the picturesque but deadly villages of the fictional county of Midsomer. The county town is Causton, a medium-sized town where Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby lives with his wife, and where the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is located. This map covers part of the landscape and villages where the filming takes place.

The map offers a landscaped environment for players who use the 81 Tiles Mod to create a range of villages and small towns scattered throughout the landscape. Alternatively, the central areas of the map offer a relatively flat space to create a city; however your challenge is that these central areas are remote from the main transport connections.

The Mass Transit DLC is required.

81 Tiles or similar mods are required to build in the central countryside, but the map will work without it.

All mods referenced below are included within the above One-Click Collection. Only those mods within the 'Required Items' list are essential.


The map is set in inland rural England, a temperate environment.

A Theme Mixer 2 mix is available to download, using the Real Neutral - Relight Real Neutral LUT by CreativeDEX. The base theme is SCT-Homecoming by Raffa.

My Relight and Ultimate Eyecandy settings are included in the screenshots above. These have been refined to reflect a warm English summer day.

Screenshots also created using Cube Map Replacer (Kloofendal).

Midsomer has extensive field network created through field painting. You will need to use the Extra Landscaping Tools mod to remove resources as your settlements expand.


Heightmap imported and detail drawn by-eye from aerial images.

There are nearly 1 million trees on this map, available via the one-click collection. The Unlimited Trees Mod is a required item.

Props have been kept to a minimum and are available via the one-click collection.

The map features extensive hedges. The Prop Line Tool is essential if you wish to recreate the hedges (using a 2.8 metre spacing).

Detailing extends across all 81 tiles because I play with the edge fog disabled.


I wanted to test a different type of gameplay with this map. Realistic style maps on the workshop are focused on a largely blank existing city or town ready to be infilled. New towns IRL are built on land in between settlements. Midsomer is therefore centred on a remote rural area (central to the real outlying settlements of Oxford, Wallingford and Thame). The start square is set to allow a vanilla gameplay with water, but I suggest using the 81 tiles mod to unlock a start tile close to the central airfield. Your challenge is to integrate your new city into the constraints of this existing landscape.

This is rural England. All transport connections are poor. Existing networks, that are primarily towards the edges of the map, are woefully under-capacity (like reality) and will quickly require upgrading. Your villages and small towns will also need bypasses to be constructed. I recommend focusing on developing an effective bus network.

The 81 Tiles Mod is essential to access all areas of the map to enable additional and improved outside connections to be made.

Highways

The Mass Transit DLC is required.

7 outside highway connections.

Left Hand Traffic is recommended and key roundabout arms already have left hand asymmetric roads to help traffic flow.

Given the constraints of the landscape and hedge networks, I recommend the Vanilla+ collection of vanilla-style roads by Delta 5-1 as these contain an extensive selection of 2, 2.5 and 3 square width roads to upgrade without needing to replant hedgerows.

I recommend upgrading your roads and highways to the UK Road Project assets (as seen in screenshots) - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1936459427

TM:PE is highly recommended to tame the unintelligent pathfinding AI, particularly the poor AI use of the roundabouts that result in some bottlenecks from the outset.

Waterflow

The rivers (modelled on the River Thames and River Thame) flow in the correct direction with reasonable waterflow. The river running north to south is wider than IRL to enable sufficient waterflow.

Rail

6 outside rail connections.

Rail lines reflect an incomplete rural network with two mainlines running in the south west corner and to the north of the map. There are also two shorter branch lines. Your challenge is to connect these missing rail links to serve your growing population.

Shipping

There is no shipping in the rivers. You have the option of adding shipping lines in-game using the mods Unlimited Outside Connections (Beta), More Network Stuff, Advanced Vehicle Options, River Ships and Ship Path Anarchy.

Air

2 flightpaths.

The rural landscape of the south of England is littered with active and disused Royal Air Force airfields. Two airfields (RAF Benson and Chalfield) are located within this map. Will you repurpose these airfields to serve civilian and cargo air traffic, or redevelop these airfields into new towns?

Utilities

There is no pre-built power, water or sewage infrastructure. The electric roads mod is recommended.


- All the creators of the assets used in this map.
- The many map-makers who have inspired me.
- BonBonB for his tutorials, including the one explaining how to publish a map to the workshop.
- And finally, to my 5 year old son Ethan who has helped me to create my first map. His map will be released soon...

Tags: Midsomer, Midsomer Murders, England, UK, uk, United Kingdom, British, Britain, Rural, Countryside, Farmland, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Realistic, Map

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